The Pen and the Needle

This book traces the history of the controversy over the education of women in the second half of the eighteenth century, and in particular the influence of Rousseau’s Émile. It includes extracts from the writings of men and women, both English and French, and introduces a variety of opinions, putting them in context and tracing the complex way in which writers responded to Rousseau and also to each other’s published views. It contains thirteen textual extracts arranged in chronological order of first publication, to show how the controversy developed over the forty-year period from 1762 to 1799, a time of dramatic political and social change, and in particular the reaction caused by the shock of the French Revolution and the resulting emphasis on women’s domestic role.